* Pen making

I had big plans today, I really did. Those plans however had a brief meeting with actual work and therefore those plans immediately fell apart like a tower of feathers in a hurricane. The plan I had was this, I was going to go down into the workshop around 10 ish and I was going to start work on shaping a pen for a client. It was a Baetylus so it was going to take a long time. The shaping would take a few hours and then the sanding would take most of Sunday. I was going to get some bitty things done in between stuff or when I was fed up of working on the one pen.

One of the bitty things was a [Schmidt section](https://i.imgur.com/j7GF1dk.jpg) for someone’s existing pen. I had some re-sanding on the pens I made [last week](https://i.imgur.com/sujuV9v.jpg), there were some scratches that my wife had found. I had a clip to fit to a pen and other bits, not a lot but here they [are](https://i.imgur.com/em7eorL.jpg).

The Baetylus was made from a custom blank which was designed after the colours of an [Amethyst](https://i.imgur.com/GmAU0UI.jpg). I got the section and the barrel done, the cap too and everything was [fine](https://i.imgur.com/7zruFbt.jpg). So then it was time to start cutting the facets. Well, I say cutting, what I mean is filing. I started with the cap, so I did a, what I think, is a nice shape, a diamond shape on the end. I then made some long wide faces down the cap which then tapered in to the join. I had a goal of having about a 15-16mm thickness by the join of cap and barrel so that it wasn’t too big in the hand. Once that was done the pen was going to taper down towards the end of the barrel where I would put a few funky bits where it would go narrow and flare out a bit so it was like a part of the gem had chipped off. So yeah anyway [here is the end of the cap](https://i.imgur.com/3VC4qHH.jpg) and here is the [top](https://i.imgur.com/kInjSML.jpg). Then problem came when I started to do the cap. I hit a hitch, the problem was that the material started to become soft and flexible. Not ideal when you are trying to make a shape like this one. It’s not a problem that crops up very often but it is annoying. So, from experience I either the resin has not had enough time to cure properly, or I have mixed too much pigment in with the resin and it has affected how it cures. I am hoping it is the former as it will just be a matter of time before I can finish working on it.

Plans then changed, I put the pen aside by my computer so I didn’t forget and I have decided to use some of the new blanks. I am going to do all the niggly bit I need to do. However I also have made a start on two stock pens. If I manage to make any more tomorrow I will. The first one is in a custom mix I had [Turnt make](https://i.imgur.com/5euUtiN.jpg) for me, the other is from [363 blanks](https://i.imgur.com/Yx6ahpd.jpg). I got everything drilled out and threaded before I had to stop, so I have effectively two [pens](https://i.imgur.com/REorPiA.jpg).

Anways take care and stay safe.